"SEC fines Narwal-linked accountant Winick for forgery
2006-07-04 20:55 ET - Street Wire
by Mike Caswell
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has fined Marvin Winick, a banned Ontario accountant linked to Silver Star Energy Inc. shareholder Sak Narwal, for forgery. The SEC says Mr. Winick issued bogus audit opinions for three public companies, Tekron Inc., Greentech USA Inc. and Information Architects Corp., by forging the signatures of accounting firms in Colorado and Oklahoma.
Mr. Winick, without admitting any wrongdoing, has agreed to $135,062 in civil penalties to settle the allegations. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.)
As reported by The Vancouver Sun in March, Mr. Winick set up three shell companies, which are unrelated to the current SEC case, for Sak Narwal, the largest shareholder in Silver Star Energy. The RCMP raided Silver Star in 2004, suspecting a pump-and-dump, but no charges have been laid.
The SEC's complaint
In a settled civil complaint filed Friday, the SEC says Mr. Winick fraudulently issued audit opinions for Tekron, Greentech and Information Architects, all reporting issuers at the time. Mr. Winick, who was banned in 1992 by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario for professional misconduct, was to prepare the companies' financial results and send them to an outside auditor.
Instead of hiring an independent auditor to overlook his work, the SEC says Mr. Winick forged the signature of an Oklahoma City auditing firm. He apparently presented the financial results as being in perfect order, and filed them with the SEC.
It seems the problem came to light when the Oklahoma firm found its name on filings it did not audit. The firm confronted Mr. Winick, who promised to remove the filings and apparently did. The SEC says he replaced them using more forged audits, this time bearing the name of a Colorado firm.
Like the Oklahoma auditor, the SEC says the Colorado auditor eventually discovered the forged opinions, and wrote a letter demanding its name come off the filings. Mr. Winick's employers, which knew about the Oklahoma problem by this time, fired Mr. Winick.
Along with the fine, Mr. Winick has agreed to a permanent director and officer ban.
The SEC has also filed suit against Luigi Brun, the chief executive officer of Tekron Inc., one of the companies for which Mr. Winick worked. The SEC says Mr. Brun knew about the forged audits.
In a separate administrative proceeding, the SEC has revoked the registration of three private Nevada companies that list Mr. Winick as president.
The Silver Star connection
With the director ban, Mr. Winick will have to resign from at least 13 public companies of which he is listed as a director or officer. Likely included in his resignations will be Easy Com Inc. and Multimod Investments Ltd., which Mr. Winick set up for Sak Narwal, the largest shareholder in RCMP target Silver Star Energy, according to The Sun's March 27 story.
The RCMP's Integrated Market Enforcement Team raided Silver Star's office in 2004. Search warrant documents alleged a pump-and-dump at the Vancouver company. No charges have been laid in that case.
A jailed relative of Sak Narwal, Roman Narwal, was also listed as a shareholder in Easy Com and Multimod in public filings. Roman Narwal is serving a 15-year sentence for drug-related extortion and kidnapping.
Although Mr. Winick did not return calls for an interview Tuesday, he told The Sun in March he did not know who Roman Narwal was and said Sak Narwal had resigned from the companies.
Mr. Winick is the target of a website calling itself Winick Watch. The site lauds itself as "dedicated to protecting the public from the possible financial risks of engaging in business relationships with Marvin Winick." In a cult-like manner, the site lists any news stories, SEC documents and lawsuits that include Mr. Winick.
Mr. Winick sued the website for slander in 2004, but Winick Watch claimed its information was factual and mostly came from public sources. Mr. Winick dropped the suit last February."
posted
Vancouver BC and Toronto are notorious for scam stocks...Maybe we will see the broom come thru the Pinks and OTCBB'S and start cleaning up the mess...There are plenty of big board stocks from the same area that are just as bad if not worse, because they are supposed to be fully reporting but still scam the public..
Posts: 10729 | From: oregon | Registered: Feb 2005
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